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Transportation of medicines by plane: how to reduce the costs?

28 February 2017

Boxes for vaccinations, cancer drugs, insulin pens, etc.:
an increasing share of the pharmaceutical products sent by air cargo need to be
kept within an exact temperature range. And this is likely to continue! What
are the challenges of air transportation for these heat-sensitive medicines? How
can it be optimized? We will advise you.

Maintain the integrity of the cold chain despite the significant
constraints

Never break
the cold chain of sensitive medicines, this is the primary
constraint when transporting medicines. This involves keeping the product at a
constant temperature throughout transportation, which includes the storage
stages and various transfers. Air cargo can be a real challenge and the biggest
obstacles are transit.

Optimize the
transportation of pharmaceutical products by plane

Whatever the logistical circuit, the packaging
solution will pass through both open and closed segments. As such, it is
subjected to temperature fluctuations which can be significant. For
example, the package will pass over the airport tarmac (open segment) and be
subjected to a temperature of more than +30°C then transit through customs (closed
segment) where the temperature is +20°C to then be stored in a
temperature-controlled area at +5°C. The wide range of temperatures encountered
in this circuit requires a reliable
method for storing heat-sensitive products within the required temperature
range.

Optimize the air transportation
costs of medicines: some tips

Although air cargo has the advantage of being a fast
means of transport and today perfectly adapted to shipments via the cold chain,
it is a costly and environmentally unfriendly mode of transport.

Here are a few tricks to help reduce air transportation costs of heat-sensitive medicines and
minimize your carbon footprint at the same time, while
ensuring perfect control of the cold chain:

First, clearly
define your actual needs according to your logistical circuit to avoid
using a solution with a greater efficiency than your actual needs. The solution
will be more expensive to purchase, loaded with more eutectic plates.

Maximize
the loading rate of the insulated packaging solution to
transport more medicines in one shipment.

Aim to choose a packaging solution which offers a very good external size ratio/payload (an efficient
packaging solution is not overloaded with eutectic plates).

Check if the
packaging solution has internal fixtures to facilitate loading and
therefore save time.

Use an
insulated packaging solution adapted to the size of cargo platforms for
shipments of large volumes of medicines.

Lastly, for complex logistical circuits or specific
requirements, consider the possibility of designing a customized packaging
solution. You will then have a packaging solution optimized for your shipments
and perfectly adapted to your constraints.

Sofrigam pallet shipper: a
packaging solution designed for air cargo

The Pallet Shipper was
created by Sofrigam 15 years ago to respond to the needs of transportation via
the cold chain for one of the leaders of the pharmaceutical sector. It quickly
emerged as a packaging beacon for
transporting heat-sensitive medicines by plane.

Sofrigam Pallet Shipper:
refrigerated container designed for air cargo

This is a completely autonomous packaging solution
which stores fresh pharmaceutical
products (+2/+8°C), at a controlled
room temperature (+15/+25°C) or
frozen (-18°C).

With an internal volume of more than 1 900 litres, the
container can directly accommodate a European or US pallet. The pallet shipper
is then loaded in one go: saving a tremendous amount of time on loading! The
internal configurations have been examined to facilitate the loading of
eutectic plates and allow an even temperature within the packaging solution.

Lastly, its XXL size is perfectly optimized: the
pallet shipper occupies a quarter of an air cargo platform, in such a way as to
use all the space available for shipping your products.

Your load remains at a constant temperature for up to 120
hours, with no risk of breaking the cold chain.

The challenges
of transporting heat-sensitive medicines by plane are significant. Nevertheless,
good management of the cold chain and the correct choice of insulated packaging
solution will help to control and optimize specific aspects.